production associate

assembler

maintenance technician

operator

material handler

Quanex

I loke to start reviews out by talking about the positives. The pay is pretty good and breaks are structured every 2 hours. I had a great supervisor and (mostly) amazing co-workers. 
With the positives out of the way, let's get to the rest. Benefits are lacking. I paid $300 per month for insurance. And that's not for my whole family, that was just me. This is not only far too much but also never covered the only doctor's visit I had while working there. Quanex is also very much a place that expects you to prioritize working there over everything. Your kids are sick? Too bad, get to work. Got 3 feet of snow and you haven't had power for 5 days? Not our problem, get to work. 

Advancement opportunities are few and far between. In my personal experience, I interviewed for a position that I have years of prior experience in. I interviewed well, and was told I would hear back one way or another in about a week. 6 weeks later I found out through the new hire board that they hired from outside. I was never personally informed of this decision. Also, you will find out with little to no advanced warning that you will be work 10 hour shifts, or you will be working Saturday. Have weekend plans? Don't care, get to work. Expect to work 50+ hours a week in the summer and barely 30 hours a week in the winter. During these overtime weeks, don't expect to see a manager there. They have plans.

Your life will become this job. Sadly that isn't a great thing to look forward to. With many people being in the same position for 9 years with no hope of advancement and people coming into the company at class 4 out of 6, you cant expect to go much higher unless someone quits, which is frequent. Expect about 1 per month, that being generously low, since I've experienced 6 in the four months that Ive worked there (not including myself and a co-worker). Management doesn't understand that for better quality, your speed will go down. Its more of a "You need to hurry up" and a silent nod, unless you want the threat of being fired. Mandatory Overtime is what his company thrives on, so if you think (like I did) that you'd be ok working the 4 ten hour days and being happy at $14.53 per hour, you're dead wrong. Expect a life threatening illness the only way to get out of it because everyone else who hates working that much has already told your supervisor they wont be there a week prior to it being posted. 

I enjoy manual labor, but unless you like pushing a minimum of 75 panels per hour down a table-saw for 10 hours a day and then getting yelled at. It might not be for you, especially knowing this is the highest you can go because all the good jobs are reserved by the people who've been there for decades.

The leads are often sexist. I am the only female on one side of the plant and my lead singles me out and has been challenging me to see if I lose my temper. The company has many flaws that avoid you from moving up or switching to a different position. They preach about their attention to detail when in all reality if you point out a mistake they act like it didn’t come from them. “It happened during shipping” is the most used phrase I have heard. There is a few leads that push you to succeed and want you do feel involved and needed. If you have an issue you can’t speak out. If you see a flaw in a system they won’t listen to you. I am very adamant on doing my job well. They do not like challenging people. I found an issue with paperwork and they decided to make it my fault. They tried to send the wrong material and the boss was adamant that it was correct. He couldn’t tell which material was what. I was pointed to be the bad guy because I wouldn’t let it go. It was wrong of them and the bosses shut me down and didn’t stop my lead from scolding me even though I knew it was the wrong material. They are not there for you. This company is flawed in every way. I do not recommend it unless you are fine with mindless work and not speaking out when something is wrong.

I've been here for around 6 years. Left once and regretted it the whole time. This is a good job. Great benefits, good pay, easy to move up if you're willing to work hard, and nobody looking over your shoulder all day. 
If You do your job they leave you alone and let you work. Nobody bothers you. No set break time go as you please as long as you stay caught up and do your job. 
Vacation is three best. After 5 years you get 126 hours vacation, 24 hours paid wellness time, and 2 floating holidays. And if you take off on your short weeks which is Wednesday and Thursday you only use 24 hours and get 7 days off. That's over 7 weeks a year off work and paid. You only get 80 hours vacation for the first 5 years but thats still 5 weeks a year off. PAID. 
And You only work half the time anyway. 
The 401k is great to. You can borrow against it anytime, and pay payments back. But you're paying yourself back. They also have a good pension plan to. 
The hours are early. We start at 4:30 a.m. and night shift starts at 4:30 p.m.  but you're off a lot. Lots of home time. 
Last thing, the management treats you great like you're actually a person and not just a clock number. 
Really great place to work. 
And the co workers are great.

I worked with some very amazing kind people in the shipping department my lead and supervisor were always so great at there jobs understanding caring and so we’re all of my co-workers. I really liked the work I always felt busy and well taken care of while working there. The only problem the company has is the people above the supervisors they don’t have any consideration for there hard working employees and they just throw you wherever is convenient to them and don’t ask you if you’re happy or are ok with the position. If you talk to them there very kind people but there actions very from there words unfortunately. And no matter how hard you work there’s also little advancement opportunities. im a hard worker and always keep busy for over a year and only got a 49 cent raise. overall I appreciate the opportunity given to me by Quanex building products just up to the end it wasn’t great unfortunately I don’t mean any disrespect towards the company it’s just my honest opinion on my experience working there. Thank you 

The work is demanding but that is typical of a manufacturing environment especially one that is dependent upon the construction industry. The leads are helpful and will quickly assess whether or not you are worth investing time into training and development. So it is important to show your worth and work hard from day one as you are always being watched and assessed. The company wants to see you succeed but your potential really is up to you. It is true that working hours do fluctuate depending on workload for the plant, so if you are looking for a typical 9:00 to 5:00 this is not for you. However if you enjoy being a part of a team and are flexible enough to adapt to changes as they come, and you have a thick enough skin to flex with those changes, you can be successful at this company. The big key is communication. Always communicate well with your leads and your teammates, and wisely prioritize your workload. Additionally, do not look for problems where you do not need to create problems when it comes to team dynamics. If you look for ways to get along and be friendly and have a positive attitude, you will quickly build trust and a rapport with those that work here.

The management is horrible on night shift, I got trained and cant even say trained honestly they put me with a guy that I couldn't even understand for this so called training on day shift who basically put me to work on this machine I had no knowledge of, then my next shift was on midnights I walk in there and they expected to run this machine knowing just the bare minimum and do it by myself I ended up hurting myself and I went to several employees and HR telling them I didn't get proper training and i didn't feel safe working on said machine it was a complete run around nobody listened to me I ended up having to corporate in a whole other state it kind of helped they moved me but can you guess I got no training whatsoever this company honestly is sad and they wonder why they have turn over right as they do they don't care about as a person your just a number to make the 1200 plus doors they need a night, once the orientation lady told me that the training in that place will never change I just quit.  

The day started with a quick meeting. Then quickly trying to run down a manager a d figure out what the scope of work was for the day because the information wasn't put out during the meeting. The company never listened to the employees and a constant turnover rate was shown. The employees worked hard, but...everyone was frustrated by lack of maintenance and instruction. The training consisted of hands on, no formal training, 100% expected rate from the beginning. The company had a high amount of osha recordable and employees constantly brought up safety issues to all levels of management with no regard or implementation of fixing the issues. In the year I worked there, I watched 2 main supervisors get fired. The plant manager fired. And numerous amounts of team leads fired. Just because the upper management held them to a double standard of "dont do this" however...its impossible to keep production without "doing this". The human resource was amazing and worked hard to help out. The pay is good however they realize they have to pay to keep their highly frustrated employees.

This is the worst job. The Supervisors are a joke. Management is worse. The entire front office needs cleaned out. 75% of team leaders are a joke.  Favoritism is very real. If you are a girl- stay away. You will not matter except to married men. They will act like there is advancement and learning HA! No. Definitely not for girls. Old timers won't train, 2/4 supervisors need to go as far as I could tell. They stay on the floor micromanaging or hang with buddy club in the office. Makes it hard to report concerns or anything when there's a room full of guys. They made a level up program and won't allow people to level up. Chaotic and very hostile environment. Very few helpful employees. The lazy are the favorites and the good workers are ghosts passing through. They pick and choose who they write up. If they don't like you- watch your back. You will miss a lot of breaks and wear your body down. No support, nothing. Junky machines, The benefits seemed good though. The schedule is cool but it sucks the life out of you so days off you can't move. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production associate 143 salaries reported	$18.89 per hour
Assembler 92 salaries reported	$18.09 per hour
Maintenance technician 46 salaries reported	$30.26 per hour
Operator 81 salaries reported	$18.67 per hour
Material handler 64 salaries reported	$18.31 per hour

Working at Quanex: Company Overview and Reviews

Quanex

Quanex Ratings

Popular jobs at Quanex

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected